Microsoft Office 2024 Will Be Available Without Subscription (betanews.com) 39
SofiaWW writes: Microsoft has announced that the next subscription-free version of its Office suite will launch later this year. A commercial preview of Office LTSC 2024 will be available from next month, with a full launch scheduled for later in the year.
The Office Long-Term Servicing Channel is supported for five years, and it holds great appeal for the many businesses that are not keen on the idea of software subscriptions. There will also be a consumer-focused version of the suite, Office 2024, available via a traditional 'one-time purchase' model. Further reading: Microsoft Really Doesn't Want You To Buy Office 2019 (From 2019).
The Office Long-Term Servicing Channel is supported for five years, and it holds great appeal for the many businesses that are not keen on the idea of software subscriptions. There will also be a consumer-focused version of the suite, Office 2024, available via a traditional 'one-time purchase' model. Further reading: Microsoft Really Doesn't Want You To Buy Office 2019 (From 2019).
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This is effectively just a 5 year subscription paid up front.
How so? Would it not continue working after 5 years? If so, by what mechanism?
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A time-bomb malware I guess.
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Yes it will still work the OP is a moron.
Re:Still subscription (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who has ever had Intuit (for example) stop providing the activation code when they tried to reinstall software that had a "perpetual" license knows better than to think that one day that might not be made part of that "5 years of support".
And no, whether or not my client who insisted on using their older Intuit program even after I explained the reasons that might not be the best idea SHOULD have gotten something newer is not the point here. They *bought* their software - as long as the OS was still compatible, and it was, a software vendor has no business pulling that crap. But they do...
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It's a fair point that Microsoft, specifically, has been pretty good about this. But you always have to follow a statement like that with "so far", because as soon as some chucklehead executive there sees Intuit getting away with it or manages through convergent de-evolution to come up with the genius friggin' idea himself as a way to increase sales, all bets are off.
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Compatibility will remain (Score:3)
32-bit userspace support also won't be going anywhere any time soon, and the reason why can dem
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The question is: does it need to talk to Microsoft's servers to run, like Office 365? If it does, then "no support"="no software". The article makes it fairly clear that the "consumer" version doesn't, but I can't figure out if this "LTSC" crap does.
Re:Still subscription (Score:4, Informative)
It most likely needs to talk to Microsoft's activation servers though.
Basically, it's just a individual licensed copy of the product You buy it, you get a key code. You log into Microsoft using your Microsoft account, redeem it and it gets attached to your account.
You then click the download button and it installs it onto your PC - where it's activated as it's on your account. If it loses activation for whatever reason, you just log into your Microsoft account again, it redownloads the license and activates.
But as long as your Windows doesn't get corrupted, it should maintain licensing.
It would LIKE to talk to the Microsoft activation servers to see if you have added products - like if you got an O365 subscription through work, then it will activate the additional O365 features and use that license, but it can always revert to your bought license.
It is valuable to note some things though - subscription free Office is only licensed for 1 PC, while O365 lets you use it on 5 PCs at once (plus 5 mobile devices) . Also if you've got a habit of buying the latest versions, the last version of Office was 2021, and 3 years worth of O365 costs about the same as a subscription free version of Office. I think the Home version of Office is $300 or so, and O366 Home is $100/year, so you're getting the same thing in the end - except the O365 includes 1TB of cloud storage and other things.
So in the end, it's the same price - but that's for 1 PC. A family might want the O365 version as it lets you have Office on Mom's, Dad's, the kids and the laptop all at the same time, while using the subscription free version means you have to buy 4 copies of it.
Or if your company provides O365, well, you probably can install it a few more times and get it "for free".
But to sum it up - as long as it stays activated it's fine. If it mysteriously loses activation, it may need to contact the server to get it activated again. This usually only happens if you change user profiles (each user may need to activate it separately, but as long as it's on one PC, it's fine), or you add/remove an O365 subscription and it somehow lost track of the previous activation (usually they stack and remember each other).
The only other caution is O365 might upgrade your Office to beyond 2024, so you may often need to downgrade back to 2024.
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I recently had to install Visio on a new machine (yes, I know, not technically Office, but some general product family) and had lost the Visio 2010 key so installed Visio 2003 from CD. And nothing of value was lost by using this twenty-year-old version of the software, apart from access to templates where the servers were shut down years ago and I had to go to a web site instead which wasn't a big deal.
I'm also running Office circa-2010 and I'm not aware of anything in 365 that I need. Plus it's a fracti
Re:Still subscription (Score:5, Interesting)
This is effectively just a 5 year subscription paid up front. After that you have to pay again, assuming they offer another 5 year version by then.
Well, if you look at it that way most commercial software is a subscription model, if you want the latest version. Some of the software I purchased a perpetual license to years ago have dropped it, even as they honor mine, because free updates forever is not a sustainable business model for most companies. Even after 5 years it doesn't stop working and if it meets your needs, you need not buy a later version. The only reason I have the subscription version is I buy several years really cheap on sale so it works out less than a one time purchase and I can install it on multiple machines for family members plus get some cloud storage.
Re:Still subscription (Score:5, Informative)
Their policy lists the license as "perpetual" but just with 5 years support so it looks like you can keep using this beyond the 5 year mark. Anyone using LTSC that can say if their version expired?
"As with previous releases, Office LTSC 2024 will still be a device-based “perpetual” license, supported for five years under the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, in parallel with Windows 11 LTSC, which will also launch later this year"
Fixed Lifecycle Policy [microsoft.com]
Re:Still subscription (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Still subscription (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Still subscription (Score:4, Informative)
I run Windows XP Pro (retail box version) in a VM to communicate with old MSDOS industrial embedded systems that simply will not talk to newer versions of windows.
The last time I needed to rebuild the environment, back in 2020, getting the XP license activated "legitimately" simply did not work at all.
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Phone activation, which I tried, did not work. It's been a few years, and I don't recall what the issue was, but it didn't work.
And when it did not work, there was ZERO support whatsoever from Microsoft, as expected here.
Re: Still subscription (Score:1)
People keep talking about how this is not Bill's or Ballmer's Microsoft, then want to use the rest of the same breath to tell me about how Microsoft has never done a thing before so they will never do it.
Make up your mind, Slashdot.
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That has got to be the dumbest take I've ever heard.
Sigh (Score:2)
Ok, usual question, can you uninstall it and if .... huh?
What?
Hey! You can't throw a curveball like that!
Let's get straight to the business at hand... (Score:1)
How, and to what degree does Microsoft intend to screw us in the end?
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Re: Let's get straight to the business at hand... (Score:4, Insightful)
I *think* it is the word "device".
A real license lets you remove it from machine A to go to machine B. So if I change my machine thrice, I still have that one license. If instead upgrading your machine means your license is dead, that would be it.
I am not sure though- other companies have done this, and the "device" wording makes me think this is it.
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How, and to what degree does Microsoft intend to screw us in the end?
They called me up the other day and threatened to kill my family if I don't buy Office 2024 and uninstall Linux from my machine. They are true monsters.
real question (Score:1)
There is only one question for me regarding Office: can I use it local without any relationship to some "cloud service" and that like Office 2007 "forever"?
Re: real question (Score:2)
Sure, as soon as you manage to find more Plutonium to power the DeLorean and go back to the past, Prof. Emmett Brown.
Just use LibreOffice! (Score:4, Insightful)
MS Office has been a non-starter for at least 10 years, and probably longer, although I'll be fair and only go back until I was in University. Seriously, if you have the option between a locked, restrictive, abusive platform that is a chore to use, unstable, annoying, and costs money, when free alternatives exists that are better in almost every measurable way, what is the defence?
Apart from something stupid like: “Being Microsoft Office” or “Being trusted” (which it's not), can anyone list a series of compelling and convincing points as to why you should pick MS Office, over LibreOffice?
Re: Just use LibreOffice! (Score:2)
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What's worse is that there was a period of several years where the Mac version of Office was light years ahead of the Windows version.
Worth the cost for the 5 TB of OneDrive storage (Score:2)
The subscription Microsoft 365 Family is well worth the cost for the 5 TB of OneDrive storage at 1 TB for each user.
Not only that, but each family member is allowed to install five copies of Office 365 on their computers. That's a potential 25 copies of Office 365 and 5 TB of OneDrive storage for $100/year.